We were thrilled with the number of people who supported our joint venture, with the three young musicians from Chippenham, on Saturday 12th July. St Andrew’s church is a wonderful venue with good acoustics and grand piano for classical concerts of this nature. We counted 120 people on the door and raised a total of £1,095.11 (every penny counts) for Dorothy House Hospice, in Bradford on Avon.
The programme of music ranged from operatic duets by Mozart and Delibes, performed by mother and daughter Susan Coates – soprano and Rebecca Sharp – mezzo soprano, piano duets by Grieg and Dvorak, performed by Jacob Byrne with Rebecca and Nick Goodall (on two separate occasions) to more modern arrangements for saxophone and piano, performed by Emma Jones and Nick Goodall. Jacob Byrne played a total of 6 piano solos, beginning and ending his selection in America with the music of George Gershwin, visiting France, with Debussy, and Germany, with Schumann, along the way. Emma Jones chose some of the most challenging repertoire; introducing the audience to the very exciting ‘Perquenza Czarda’ by Iturralde, from Spain, and ‘Improvisation 1’, by Japanese composer Ryo Noda, which was based on the sounds of the Japanese flute. We covered 13 countries and 5 languages – English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Welsh all delivered by Rebecca and Susan. It was lovely to receive such a wonderful reception and we wish our young performers well with their future studies.
We will be returning to St Andrew’s, on Saturday 5th July 2015, with Noteworthy Mixed Choir from Maesteg in South Wales. The Musical Director of the choir, Ryan Wood, has worked with Opera Sulis on a number of occasions and we are looking forward to performing selections from the operatic stage and silver screen. Opera Sulis soloists will include Gavin Davies, bass-baritone, Anne Braley, mezzo soprano and Susan Coates, soprano. We will be announcing our tenor soloist for the evening soon. Once again, we are hoping to raise funds for Dorothy House Hospice and hope that the early notice of this event will mean that people have put the date in their diaries already.
Opera Sulis 